Assault Troop Transport

minipol · #1 March 2nd, 2003, 06:04 PM

I'm trying to build a fleet with heavily armoured and shielded transports. The idea is that the other ships in the fleet (mainly APB ships) go on with pounding the defenses until they are destroyed while the ATT (Assault Troop Transports) go in an drop troops even before all defenses are destroyed.
I have succeeded in getting them to drop troops AFTER all defenses are gone but not while the attacks are still going on.

In my fleet, i have planet buster ships which are loaded with planetary napalm so these need to get close to the planet in order to be effective while the APB ships need to keep more distance.

When i test and only use fleet of ATT's, they indeed attack and drop troops. A fleet of ATT's, APB's and Busters, keeps the ATT's back until the defenses are gone. I've tried to let them break formation but this doesn't achive anything:

Fleet strategy is capture planet:
Primary Movement Strategy is: Drop troops
Secondary Movement Strategy is: Point Blank

APB's ship strategy: Optimal Fire Range
Buster's ship strategy: Optimal Fire Range
ATT strategy: Capture Planet

Any idea as to what i need to change to have the ATT join in the attack and drop troops even before the defenses are destroyed?

Slick · #2 March 2nd, 2003, 06:24 PM

I believe it is hard coded to work that way. The rules as I understand them:

- If your fleet contains attack ships and a troop transport (TT), the TT will wait until the attack ships remove defenses (Weapon platforms, satellites, fighters, ships, bases).

- If the attack ships are captured, destroyed (or maybe crippled, not sure), the TT will then attemp to capture under fire.

- If there are no attack ships, the TT will attempt to capture under fire.

- The TT will attempt to capture the nearest planet or moon regardless of what you told it to attack.

- If there is more than 1 TT, same rules apply except they can capture more than 1 planet or moon in a battle. They will not cooperate to add troops to the same planet while the ground combat is in progress. If there is 1 enemy planet and you have more than 1 TT, when defenses are eliminated, both will rush the planet. The first one will drop troops and the second one will wait. If the ground combat from the first one results in defeat for you, the second one will drop troops to try again, providing the turn count is still <30. This can result in losing a lot of troops because the planet kills them off in 2 stages instead of using 1 large invasion force.

Basically, I don't think you can tinker with the strategies to change this. Hope this helps.

Slick.

[ March 02, 2003, 16:24: Message edited by: Slick ]

minipol · #3 March 2nd, 2003, 06:37 PM

I feared this was going to be the case.
Basically, i do not see a need then for a heavily armoured TT except if all other ships are eliminated.

Anyway, thanks for the fast answer.

Suicide Junkie · #4 March 2nd, 2003, 06:41 PM

Quote:

If the ground combat from the first one results in defeat for you, the second one will drop troops to try again, providing the turn count is still <30. This can result in losing a lot of troops because the planet kills them off in 2 stages instead of using 1 large invasion force.

Even in tactical combat, you cannot simultaneously drop troops from two transports.

If your forces manage to hold out for a stalemate, the second transport will be able to add reinforcements, and both Groups of troops will fight together against the surviving militia.
This rarely happens in the unmodded game.

If the planet is captured, I believe that any extra troop transports will drop their troops on the remaining planets/moons.

A heavily armored troop transport would be a good idea for attacking small colonies.
If the colony has little to no defenses, you can send the transport in while your main fleet takes on the heavily defended planets.

[ March 02, 2003, 16:45: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

Slick · #5 March 2nd, 2003, 06:42 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by minipol:
I feared this was going to be the case.
Basically, i do not see a need then for a heavily armoured TT except if all other ships are eliminated.

Anyway, thanks for the fast answer.

Don't discount the heavily armed TT. They do have their uses, if you use them properly. You could make a small fleet of them and they will attack the planet. If successful, you now have taken the planet with most/all of its defenses still in place and now under your control. No need to build WP's.

One HUGE caution on this: Be sure you take out enemy sats, bases, and moons BEFORE if you do this. If you don't, as soon as you take control of the planet (you don't take control of orbiting sats & bases), they will all fire on the planet, most likely glassing it.

Slick.

Slick · #6 March 2nd, 2003, 06:46 PM

[quote]Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:

Quote:

If the planet is captured, I believe that any extra troop transports will drop their troops on the remaining planets/moons.

If you have more than 1 TT, and there is more than 1 planet, they will both rush the closest planet. The first one to get there will drop troops and ground combat will happen. The turn after GC, the 2nd TT will continue to attempt to capture a planet. It will go for the closest one: either the next planet/moon, or the current one if you lost the GC battle.

Slick.

Fyron · #7 March 2nd, 2003, 08:58 PM

[quote]Originally posted by Slick:

quote:
Originally posted by Suicide Junkie:

Quote:

If the planet is captured, I believe that any extra troop transports will drop their troops on the remaining planets/moons.

If you have more than 1 TT, and there is more than 1 planet, they will both rush the closest planet. The first one to get there will drop troops and ground combat will happen. The turn after GC, the 2nd TT will continue to attempt to capture a planet. It will go for the closest one: either the next planet/moon, or the current one if you lost the GC battle.

Slick.

That is exactly what SJ said...

PvK · #8 March 2nd, 2003, 09:25 PM

It's really too bad there is no assault order as you mentioned.

I've seen a couple of cases in simultaneous where transports with fighting abilities would be helpful in AI-controlled combat.

One is when there is a target planet with no weapon platforms. The ship will then go try to launch troops, even if there are enemy fighters (or perhaps even ships) flying around.

Another is when something hostile heads over where the transport and other support ships are hiding in a corner trying to avoid being hurt by a raging battle. This may be an enemy support ship, or enemy units/ships with orders to target unarmed targets. At this point, even a lightly armed presence can be decisive in a corner battle and save/destroy many support ships.

PvK

minipol · #9 March 3rd, 2003, 02:26 AM

it's ashame it's not possible. I wanted to do a galactic recreation of D-day. Now it's not going to happen

I took the enemies planets anyway but not with assault transports but with the standard run of the mill troop transport.

Taera · #10 March 3rd, 2003, 04:26 AM

you might want to try using short-range weapons on your ATT. (dont forget the shields and armor... a lot of). Massive-mounted planetary napalm might do the trick (hehe - 1800 damage per 40kT per 2 turns)
......
guess what, if armed the ship will proceed to capture the target planet immidiately. Be careful though as in max tech three APB-armed M.W.P's can cream the transport before it comes into range.

And if im not mistaken, if you capture the WP's intact, you get them to work for YOU.